A selection of English ESL news story printables

Build students' confidence by exposing them to easy-to-read, entertaining, and real news stories.





Preparations:

1. Update or find some new news stories and reduce them into very easy to read versions

2. Make sure you have some good resources that students can use to translate the materials

a. Dictionaries, iPads, etc.





Procedure:

1. Make groups, usually no bigger than four people

2. Let students choose which story they want to translate. They will usually choose based on the picture or how 'hard' the English looks

3. Also distribute the resources for students to translate

4. Explain that students will try to translate the news stories into Japanese and then share both the English and Japanese with the class once they're finished.

5. Let students work

6. Sometimes, I, the teacher, read the English, other times I let students read the English.





Notes:

This activity works best for students who are a little more self-motivated. Giving this to your quiet, uninterested class might not be the best idea. 



Easy News Stories


This worksheet focuses on ten major news stories from around the world for the week of April 21–27, 2025. Students read each story and complete a heading gap-fill activity by matching the correct title to each paragraph. The worksheet also includes a vocabulary matching task (10 key words) and comprehension questions to check understanding. Suitable for upper-intermediate (B2) and advanced (C1) EFL/ESL students. Great for reading, critical thinking, and vocabulary building. Can be used for individual work, pair work, or group discussion.



BBC news story, video

This is a simplified new story on the earthquake in Melbourne in 2021. Students read the story demonstrate an understanding of the story , vocabulary and find verbs in the story in the past simple tense.

News story- Melbourne Earthquake

This worksheet features ten major global news stories from May 2025. Students read each short article (150–200 words), then complete a headline matching activity, vocabulary matching, and three comprehension questions per story. Topics include science, natural disasters, sports, media, health, and world events. Ideal for upper A2 to B1 learners who want to build reading comprehension and real-world vocabulary through current event topics.

Headlines Project Work - Create Headlines for News Stories

This worksheet contains 18 conversation cards and two vocabulary matching exercises (one with pictures). The cards can be cut out if desired and be used as conversation questions. Can be used with both young learners and adults (pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate).

Let´s talk about the NEWS

Breaking News - Past Passive Speaking Activity: Ss are organised into small groups. Each group gets X pictures and their task is to come up with a story / a piece of news connected to the picture. The main aim of this task is to form as many sentences in passive voice as possible. The groups then present their stories using a style that resembles news programmes. T can write some sentences on the board to help Ss mime this style, e.g. “Good evening, this is...” / “Hello and welcome to... Radio...”



Source of the photos:

1. dailymail.co.uk

2. spiritualunite.com

3. drstevebest.wordpress.com

4. india.com

5. windsorstar.com

6. davidhagerman.typepad.com

Breaking News - Past Passive Speaking Activity

News for Kids is a new series. A news story is adapted for Intermediate students. Tasks are added and essential vocabulary is a focus point.

News for Kids: Winter Snow Storms

This is a reading comprehension worksheet. The exercises are based on an article taken from CBBC Newsround. There is a pre-reading activity, a gap-fill grammar exercise on the past tenses, a true / false comprehension exercise, a vocabulary matching exercise and a roleplay activity. B&W version and Answer Key are included. 

Croc-wrestling granny wins award

- Advanced students practice reading through reading about AI in the form of a news article 
- Students then get to skim read and find any unknown vocabulary and put it in the vocab box
- Students then use that vocabulary in their writing practice about their opinion on AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Reading Comprehension

First listen to the audio recording on the BBC website to see how much you can understand. Then read the story and discuss the following questions. Have fun!!!!

READ AND TALK - Asia trip

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

24 News story English ESL worksheets pdf & doc